Take a great book - the rest is pretty easy. That's a good equation once you've got the book (e.g. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). But when the book is quite suited for an English major, a little will be lost in translation. Still this was an excellent movie.
Shailene Woodley plays Hazel Grace, a young girl with cancer affecting her lungs. She's on a miracle drug that is keeping her alive, but at what price? She lives with her parents, is healthy enough to keep going, but lives her life with a sense of impending doom.
She meets Gus (Angus McWaters Augustus Waters) [played by Ansel Elgort] at support group which takes place in an Episcopal church - in the book they meet in the cross of the sanctuary - the literal heart of Jesus. They're attracted to each other as Gus is a handsome jock (pre cancer and the loss of a limb). Hazel tells him about her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction which is kind of a F.Scott Fitzgerald novel about a young person who dies abruptly. They bond over the book and seek to learn more together about the reclusive author now living in Amsterdam, Peter Van Houten.
They are young adults but they live a very adult life, with death a common but still not pleasant thought. So themes of Carpe Diem, young love, physical limits, spirituality, parents and the Meaning of Life are here.
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